1. 1667 - Abiah Folger, mother of Benjamin Franklin, is born in 1667 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Her mother, Mary Morrell Folger (grandmother of Benjamin Franklin) was born in England and came to the Americas by being an indentured servant. Indentured servants would agree to work for a period of usually seven years as a way to pay the cost of transportation to the colonies of the New World. Indentured servants could be sold but were otherwise free to move about, marry, etcetera but not runaway prior to working off said contract.
Abiah’s sister Bethshua Folger was directly
involved with the Salem Witch Trials, reportedly accusing some and throwing a
shoe at an accused persons head during one of the trials. Bethshua claimed
hysterical blindness during another trial as proof an accused was in fact a
witch. Abiah Folger will go on to marry a candle maker, Josiah Franklin and
they will have ten children, one of which is Benjamin Franklin. There is a
monument to Abiah on Madaket Road at the location of what was the Folger Farm
which is now owned by the Nantucket Historical Society Association.
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